The founders of Cequint began over 10 years ago working in the telecom industry. As leaders in the development of Caller ID technology for landline carriers, this group helped the US RBOCs launch Caller ID which grew into one of the industry's most profitable services. Cequint's focus is to leverage its rich experience base and IP to provide a new generation of Caller ID services in wireless, and ignite a new category of high-margin feature revenue for mobile operators.

It's worth noting that Caller ID has a history of strong consumer adoption – every time an enhanced Caller ID feature has been introduced, subscribers have seen value and demonstrated a willingness to pay for new services. It's easy to take for granted that everyone understands the term Caller ID. In fact, landline operators have spent 100s of millions of dollars over the past 12 years educating and establishing the market. The result is almost universal familiarity with Caller ID, an expectation of service, and a predisposition to pay for feature enhancements.

Based in Seattle, Washington, Cequint works closely with the top mobile OEMs and wireless operators.

Cequint's management team has extensive experience and a history of successful execution. Each member of the team has prior experience in technology start-ups and has taken companies from start-up through acquisition numerous times.

Rick Hennessey, Chief Executive Officer
Rick Hennessey is a pioneer in the mobile marketplace, founding and successfully selling several wireless data businesses in North America. He speaks globally at wireless and entertainment industry-related conferences and sits on several advisory committees.

Prior to Cequint Rick was the CEO of Dwango Wireless. Rick entered Dwango through the acquisition of his firm Over-The-Air Wireless. He began in Business Development, was soon hired as President and six months later elected by the board to the position of CEO. Rick's role as CEO resulted remarkable growth taking the company's quarterly sales from under $25,000 to over $1,000,000 in less than a year. In that year Rick also led the coordination of partnerships with the leading premium lifestyle brands such as ESPN, Rolling Stone, Beliefnet, Real Networks and Napster. Rick has coordinated agreements with each of the major wireless carriers including Verizon, Cingular, AT&T Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile, Alltel, Nextel and US Cellular. Rick has also coordinated partnerships with leading handset providers and content partnerships on a global basis.

Prior to Dwango, Rick founded Over-The-Air Wireless (OTA) in 2001, a successful application developer and content producer in the North American ringtone and media marketplace. OTA was the first company in the US to launch pre-paid wireless entertainment cards and the first in the US to successfully deliver ringtones on a CDMA network. Rick also established OTA's relationships with seven of the North American wireless carriers and agreements with the top music publishers before Dwango acquired OTA in 2003.

Prior to OTA, Rick was founder and CEO of Eversio Technologies, Eversio Mobile (sold in 2004 to Executive Wireless) and Syndeo Systems (Sold in 2001 to Covault). Rick has been successfully marketing to carriers for over ten years.

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Bob Hart, Chairman
Bob Hart has more than 25 years of experience as a successful technology entrepreneur. He was most recently a general partner at SeaPoint Ventures in Bellevue, WA, a venture investment firm specializing in wireless and telecommunications. He joined SeaPoint after leaving America Online, where he was senior vice president. Prior to that, Bob was the CEO of Tegic Communications, a leading wireless applications company acquired by AOL in 1999.

Prior to Tegic, Hart served as CEO of Optimas Corporation, a computer vision software company, until its sale to FLIR Systems in 1996. He was the co-founder and CEO of Sierra Geophysics, a leading provider of software applications to the worldwide oil and gas industry, from 1978 until its sale to Halliburton Company in 1989 and was a member of the Halliburton Energy Services' Management Committee from 1989 to 1993.

Hart's strong engineering and scientific background and his entrepreneurial success in building technology companies bring value to companies he helps develop.

He also serves on the boards of NetMotion Wireless, Phoenix Savings Bank and New England Research Corp., and he is a past director of the Washington Software Association, the High Technology Council of the Northwest Industry Partnership, the University of Washington Science Advisory Board and several other industry and university boards. He holds a Bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Master's degree and Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology.

 

Mark Gosselin, Chief Technology Officer
Mark Gosselin brings over 15 years of R&D experience in the telecom industry to Cequint as the CTO. As co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Consumerware, he was the architect of the company's core technologies, one of which represents the industry's first use of digital signal processing (DSP) for caller identification. While at Consumerware, products developed by Gosselin represented over $50-million in hardware revenues sold by the Company to its Telco customers. Gosselin designed and led development teams from concept to high-volume production. Consumerware was a leader in the Caller ID marketplace, providing landline carriers with Caller ID services that generated billions in revenue. Twice Consumerware was awarded by Deloitte and Touche as one of Washington's fastest growing companies.

 

Scott Frodle, Chief Financial Officer
While CFO of Consumerware from 1999 to 2004, Frodle managed all aspects of finance, administration and operations, including financial reporting, accounting systems, legal and banking relationships, and cash flow management. Before joining Consumerware, Frodle ran a tax and financial services consulting business, serving a number of high technology clients including Attachmate Inc., among others. He served as Chief Financial Officer for SAVI Inc. in Bellevue, WA and as tax manager for Egghead Software Inc. in Issaquah, WA. Frodle served on the Board of Trustees of Bastyr University from 1991 through 1994. Frodle began his professional career with KPMG Peat Marwick. He is a graduate of the University of Washington.

 

Scott Weller, President
Scott Weller, a fifteen year wireless industry veteran, joins Cequint after spending the last five years at Research in Motion. While at RIM, Weller managed a national team leading retail and channel sales of BlackBerry with at&t, RIM’s largest operator partner. Prior to RIM, Weller held senior management positions with mobile startups Everypath and the Microsoft/Qualcomm joint venture Wireless Knowledge. Throughout his career in mobility Weller has successfully established and nurtured long term relationships with leading mobile operators – most recently growing BlackBerry’s partnership with at&t from a new relationship to one of at&t’s leading OEM vendors. Weller began his career in mobility on the carrier side as a marketing manager for Centel Cellular, later acquired by Sprint. Weller holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington and a Master’s degree from Duke University.

 

Jeff Ross, Vice President, Products
Jeff Ross brings over 15 years of wireless industry experience to Cequint. With a diverse background in business development, product management, and marketing, Jeff most recently served as the COO of 9 Squared, a Zed Group Company. Jeff directed 9 Squared’s rapid growth to become the #1 independent distributor of ringtones in the US with 2007 revenues of $120 million. While at 9 Squared, Ross launched a number of highly successful BREW, WAP/Web, Celltop, and off-portal mobile services. Prior to joining 9 Squared, Ross led product distribution at Dwango Wireless, a leading developer and publisher of mobile entertainment content for top lifestyle brands. Previously, Ross spent nearly 10 years at QUALCOMM Incorporated serving in a number of senior marketing and product management positions including VP of Marketing and Co-Founder of Wireless Knowledge, a QUALCOMM-Microsoft joint venture.